Australian adventurer, author and filmmaker Francis Edwin Birtles (1881-1941) made this remark two days before departing on what would become his most famous adventure – driving from London, England to Melbourne, Australia in his 1925 Bean racing car known as the ‘Sundowner’.

This maillot (one-piece) swimsuit was manufactured by Melbourne company Black Lance in the 1930s. Designed by Peter O’Sullivan, the popular ‘Brigadier’ swimsuit features star-shaped buttons (which fasten the top to the trunks) and nautical stripes inspired by naval uniforms.

On 18 October 2001 a decrepit, overcrowded fishing boat embarked from Sumatra, Indonesia, carrying more than 400 asylum seekers who had fled Iraq and Afghanistan. It foundered the next day en route to the offshore Australian territory of Christmas Island, drowning 353 people – 146 children, 142 women and 65 men. The boat would come to be known as SIEV X (Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel Unknown).

Sometime between 1839-1845 Frances (Fanny) Bligh, daughter of the renowned William Bligh, wrote this in a letter to a landholder in the colony of New South Wales named George Suttor. The ring Fanny was referring to was this intaglio bloodstone antique ring (00044369) which formerly belonged to her father.